By
On Top Magazine Staff
Published:
January 04, 2014

Bishop Charles Scicluna has warned
Catholic lawmakers against voting for a proposed civil unions bill in
the southern European nation of Malta.

Scicluna told the Church-run paper
Avvenire
that Catholic MPs have a moral duty to oppose legislation recognizing
the unions of gay and lesbian couples.

“[T]he Catholic lawmaker has a moral
duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote
against the bill,” Scicluna said. “Granting the vote in favor of
a law so harmful to the common good of society is a gravely immoral
act.”

Scicluna has previously said that Pope
Francis encouraged him to speak out against the bill during a
December 12 private meeting.

The pope, Scicluna told the Sunday
Times of Malta, was “quite shocked by the issue of civil
unions and gay adoptions” and “reiterated that gay adoptions are
'un rigresso antropoligico' [an anthropological regression].”